As for Fell, I understand that what Ellis is TRYING to get across is that Richard is “so wrapped up in the case and trying to get the bad guy that he misses the fact that things aren’t going well. It’s part of his personality, and therefore, although he should see what’s coming, he doesn’t.” And if the mistake he made was even vaguely reasonable, I think it would be a great job by Ellis.

But I don’t think Richard’s mistake is evenly vaguely reasonable, so I don’t think it works.

Actually, isn’t the original concept of the Hellfire Club in that story all about a bunch of uberpowerful mutants who’ve been “passing” and are evil because they’re willing to kidnap and exploit their own kind?

And, uh, there are people who think the Living Monolith and the Savage Land are Great X-Men Stories? If you’re talking about the Roy Thomas/Neal Adams run, of course, the Savage Land story there is all about Magneto trying another of his schemes, pretending to be a sort of “Professor X of the primitives,” which does in fact bring it ’round again to the civil rights theme — Magneto as exploiter of rights discourse.

As for this particular issue of ‘Tec … I liked it except for the shark stuff (and I’m glad you pointed that out, Greg). I mean, come on, sharks off the coast of Gotham? There aren’t many sharks that far north in the Atlantic, period. Certainly not enough so that you could count on a shark attack/feeding frenzy when the guy goes overboard. You’d have to be chumming the water first. So that HUGE implausibility kinda spoils the whole story. (I kept waiting for some bizarre twist in which the villain had a device that could lure/control sharks.) Nonetheless, an otherwise enjoyable comic thanks to the new Riddler/Batman dynamic.

As for Sam Noir, I didn’t read the first series (I’ll have to get the collected version), but I got Ronin Holiday #1. I definitely need to read the first series if it has more noir cliches, because I thought this issue was rampant with them.

Really? You’re not screwing with us? That’s just awful. Exodus, fercryinoutloud?

Sigh. It’s 1994.

Sounds exactly right– and awfully depressing. Almost as bad in its way as Onslaught Reborn.

I think you’re pretty spot-on with The Other Side, though. And Lord, that Shi’ar plot is so boring that I actually couldn’t finish your one-paragraph summary, by no fault of yours.

I think there should be an issue of Detective Comics in which Batman has to organize the Astro City floppies. Unfortunately that might end the “one and done” run.

Which are generally considered two of the three best X-men stories. And I’d call ‘em the top two.

I’d also argue that we’ve been getting little more than Claremont nostalgia in the X-Men series for the better part of the last two decades, and there comes a point where merely trying to echo the “glory days” just doesn’t cut it anymore.

The racial issue is the biggest downer in the world and while it works ok as background, it drags down almsot every story that’s focused upon it. Whether it’s the Friends of Humanity or the Church of Humanity or what, it’s just not very exciting.

I deal with the X-Men in space a lot better than the Titans in space, personally, and I think this specific story has a lot more problems due to its 12 issue nature than anything else.

Trust me, in a few months when this grand story concludes, I will have much more to say about this particular topic, whether the story itself works or not.

And part of the problem with what you’re saying about Brubaker is that Claremont’s dialogue was always the clunkiest part of the book. Brubaker can imitate his plotting all he wants – I, for one, loved the endless dangling plot threads of the old X-Men. But the dialogue was goofy then, and it’s still goofy now.

You wrote:
“This issue just points out why the X-Men in Space doesn’t really work – I have absolutely no interest in Shi’ar internal politics, so none of this is in any way compelling.”

That does not point out why the X-Men in Space doesn’t really work. It’s just you saying you aren’t interested. Why the X-Men is Space doesn’t really work would be a really interesting topic, and one I’d like to hear your opinions on- provided that they are reasoned and not just “because I don’t care.”

Again, I am sorry if I sound like a jerk, but I read the site (and this column) regularly, and I like your reviews more when they seem like they’ve been thought about, not just typing up a gut reaction. Anyone can have a gut reaction, I want to know why, and what it is about the comic that does not work for you.

In regards to the issue at hand, and your comments on it, yes, I think Brubaker is trying to echo some of the Claremont class X-men feel on this title. It isn’t 100% successful, but I think it conjures up that feeling to some extent. I, for one, like reading the old Claremont stuff… and sadly, Claremont doesn’t do Claremont nearly as well as he used to. Ah well.

If you like the next issue I might buy the trade, though, even though this issue sounds chock full of the kind of stuff I don’t like in superhero books.

My mindset on the annual is thus.

Carey’s been doing all this fun stuff off in a weird corner, and now he’s going to pull it back into the middle and try to salvage some of the established characters and concepts.

That said, Schmidt saying in an interview that there are some people who just NEED Stryfe in their comics and that he’s going to try to appeal to them too could be seen as a sort of worrying comment, I imagine.

But at the same time, I sort of want to see what Carey can do with a character like that. It’s obvious he’s putting a ton of thought into all of this. I’m real curious to see what he can do with Sinister, because he’s very talented. I sort of wish Morrison had played with some of the more established Rogues. Imagine what Morrison could have done with someone like Black Tom.

But that’s neither here nor now.

And when Astro City is good, Michael, it’s very good. I just worry about the poor scheduling.

It’s sort of like the JSA of X-Men.

In that he takes everything that’s fun and workable about the old tropes and then puts in a modern sensibility of character development.

Coincidentally, another of my favorites is Planetary.

Still, I really enjoyed it: The story was decent, and Cameron Stewart’s art was incredible – the best I’ve ever seen from a guy who’s normally pretty darn good.

I wouldn’t say it’s quite “style over substance”, but the style makes up for the weaknesses in substance.